The end of the Mayan calendar may have unleashed a slew of predictions that the world is about to end - but this morning true believers were few and far between in towns designated safe zones from the impending apocalypse.

Indigenous people in Mexico and central America are celebrating the winter solstice and the end of the Mayan calendar's 13th bak'tun - or the end of the world, for doomsday enthusiasts.

What is the Mayan calendar?

Comes from a carved stone found in Tortuguero - a Mayan site in Mexico

A long form calendar used by the ancient Mayan civilisation

Consists of a series of 13 cycles called bak'tun - each lasting 400 years

Gained prominence after a US scholar's 1966 observation that the end of the 13th bak'tun could herald an 'Armageddon' for the Maya

But in the French town of Bugarach and the Turkish village of Sirince, which doomsayers say will offer refuge from the impending catastrophe, the streets were teeming not with new age mystics but with hordes of disappointed journalists.

"To me it sounds like a hoax invented by the media. People have been stocking on wine, just in case, so I guess it will be one huge party tomorrow to finish it up," one Turkish villager said.

A cornerstone of the 2012 phenomenon has been US scholar Michael Coe's 1966 observation that the end of the calendar's 13th bak'tun could herald an "Armageddon" for the Maya.

But friends and colleagues say Professor Coe, one of the world's foremost experts on the Mayan civilisation, never meant to forecast an apocalypse.

NASA, other scientists and other experts on Maya culture have also dismissed the idea of disaster striking, but media rumours and the internet fascination with the subject have put the spotlight on the ancient heart of the Mayan civilization.

Serpent god temple

As home to the Mayans, Mexico and countries in Central America are using the opportunity to highlight their indigenous heritage, and capitalise on the influx of tourists seeking mystical enlightenment.

Guatemalan president Otto Perez has kicked off a long night of Mayan dance and other rituals, lasting until dawn, when Mayan natives will greet the rising sun.

Thousands of people are expected in Chichen Itza, in southern Mexico, where pilgrims will converge on the Temple of the serpent god Kukulkan, an imposing 30-metre pyramid.

There is an explosion of consciousness through this. We are becoming billionaires of energy. Opening to receive more light and more joy.

Shambala Songstar, musician who travelled to Mexico for the even

Visitors have come from as far afield as Asia and Europe to share in the experience, and there is little apprehension among them that the world faces a day of reckoning in the annals of the Maya's 5,125 year-old calendar.

"At least we can die saying we saw the end of the world," said 27-year-old Minu Nair from Kerala, India, laughing and bathed in sweat after a steep climb to the top of the Maya pyramid at Coba, about an hour's drive from Chichen Itza.

Artists, hippies, lawyers and businessmen have congregated at the ruins of Chichen Itza in southern Mexico - believing the day will be the culmination of a spiritual journey, the dawn of a new consciousness, or the wellspring of untapped energies.

"There is an explosion of consciousness through this," said Shambala Songstar, a grey-haired Californian musician who gave his age as "eternal."

"We are becoming billionaires of energy. Opening to receive more light and more joy," he said.

Most visitors describe Friday as a moment of positive change, a time for reflection over the planet's direction.

"A new age will dawn, and everybody who is involved in this knows that the world is in a very sad state," said Jill Baker, an artist from Kentucky, who, together with her partner Lee Pennington, spent $14,000 to visit Mexico for the big day.

Quilpie 'safe zone'

Map: Australian Apocalypse safe zone

The prospect of the world ending today has also led to extra visitors flocking to one remote south-west Queensland shire.

The Quilpie Shire Council says some people have travelled to the shire, because they believe it's a "safe zone" - and gatherings are being held to mark the end of the world in Quilpie and Adavale.

Mayor Stuart McKenzie says the visitors started arriving last month.

"Well I think Yowah is actually the centre of it - but Quilpie is right in one of these "safe zones". And people actually started turning up about four or five weeks ago," he said.

"I think they are coming from everywhere, there was one from Canada I know. They are probably noticeable because everyone in Quilpie works, and they are not really tourists, they are just there, poking around, and biding their time I suppose."

The safe zone has been designated by Macedonian astral projection psychic Pane Andov.

On his website Mr Andov predicts that a galactic energy wave will hit earth, causing widspread desction including cracks in the Earth's crust that will spilt continents apart.

French town inundated - with media

Rumours the tiny French hamlet of Bugarach will be spared from the looming Apocalypse have sparked a storm of media interest, with journalists flocking in search of Doomsday believers who are so far proving few and far between.

Hundreds of new age fanatics were expected to descend on Bugarach, believing it will be one of the few sacred areas to be sheltered from the cataclysm, which they say will accompany the end of the Mayan calendar.

But the mayor of Bugarach, which has a population of just 200, has made an appeal to the world to stay away.

"Don't come here. You'll only be making things hard for yourself, and there's even a risk of physical danger. So just don't come," he told reporters.

At last count some 250 journalists were accredited for the much-anticipated event, outnumbering the 200 or so locals, who were becoming increasingly irate.

"Don't come here. You'll only be making things hard for yourself, and there's even a risk of physical danger. So just don't come," he told reporters.

Bugarach mayor Jean-Pierre Delord

Local police are blocking routes to a nearby mountain where rumour has it the hilltop will open and aliens will emerge with spaceships to save humans.

The origins of Bugarach's supposed immunity are unclear, although the area has been steeped in legend for centuries.

It was once inhabited by the mysterious medieval heretics the Cathars, and is even said to be the burial site of Jesus and possibly Mary Magdalene.

The local mountain, the Pic de Bugarach, is said to be upside down, containing older layers of rock at the top than at the bottom.

More recently those myths have morphed into claims the mountain shelters an alien spaceship that will take off on Judgment Day, or even that it conceals a door to another world.

In 2011, the French government's anti-sect watchdog Miviludes warned of a possible influx of new age believers, after spotting six settlements in the area and noting that messianic groups had been holding conferences at local hotels.

Chinese cult crackdown

On Thursday, Chinese state media said about 1,000 people had been detained for spreading rumours about Friday, including that it will herald the start of three days of darkness.

The crackdown, which targeted members of the 'Almighty God' cult, has not been enough to stop panic-buying of candles, instant noodles and matches, according to complaints logged on Weibo, China's popular Twitter-style microblogging site.

Last month, a Chinese man unveiled his own ark which he hoped would save him in the event of an apocalyptic flood.

Lu Zhenhai, a man from Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, hoped his $US160,500 'Noah's Ark' will help him survive a today's impending apocalypse.

And a Chinese farmer made headlines around the world after invented a survival pod he hopes will be adopted to provide protection during natural disasters.

Liu Qiyuan from the village of Qiantun, Hebei province, said he was inspired by the apocalyptic Hollywood movie '2012' and the 2004 Asian tsunami to develop the pods, nicknamed 'Noah's Ark'.

Mr Liu has built seven pods which are able to float on water, and some even have their own propulsion system.

The pods consist of a fibreglass shell wrapped around a steel frame.

The airtight spheres with varying interiors contain oxygen tanks and seat belts with space for around 14 people, and are designed to remain upright when in water.

'No clue'

As the Turkish village of Sirince waited for the apocalypse from which some say the tiny Turkish hamlet will be spared, its streets were teeming not with doomsayers but with disappointed journalists.

Hundreds of reporters were wandering aimlessly around the beautiful town of 570 inhabitants on Thursday, hoping to grab a New Age spiritualist taking refuge there to dodge the apocalypse.

Doomsayers have reportedly identified Sirince - reputed to be the site from which the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven - as a safe haven that will be spared destruction thanks to the positive energy flowing through it.

But if the world ends and Sirince survives, there will be fewer illuminati than journalists on hand to rebuild after the apocalypse.

And they will have cellar-loads of wine to help with the task.

Shop owners who have been preparing for a mass influx of thousands blame the media for the miscalculation one merchant said had led to an "utter stocking failure".

"We have no clue why people thought we would have thousands pouring into Sirince," said Ali Gulumser, a 38-year-old shop owner whose family spans five generations in Sirince, which made a name for itself with its fruit-flavoured wines and rich olive oil.

"To me it sounds like a hoax invented by the media. People have been stocking on wine, just in case, so I guess it will be one huge party tomorrow to finish it up."

There could be chaos in the rest of the world, and this is somewhere where we know it's safe and there are plenty of police to protect us.

I think this is a good place to be... and there's lots of fruit wine to drink as well.

Australian journalist Madlen Habeen

Serbia

A pyramid-shaped mountain in Serbia, believed by some to be a source of unusual electromagnetic waves that could shield it from catastrophe, has been attracting record numbers of visitors ahead of the predicted apocalypse.

All the hotels around the Rtanj mountain in south-east Serbia have been booked up ahead of "doomsday", many of them for a new age conference that is due to run beyond the forecast end of the world.

"I do not really believe that the end of the world is coming, but it is nice to be here in case something unusual happens," said Darko, a 28-year-old designer visiting from Belgrade.

His friend Zaga Jovancic said she had brought some canned food and bottled water, "just in case."

"I don't expect 'doomsday,' but it will be nice to tell our children that we were here at a time when the whole world went mad," Ms Jovancic said.

The main reason for the influx of visitors - some from as far away as Australia - is a four-day conference opening on Thursday hosted by the Spirit of Rtanj Association to look into the alleged properties of the snow-covered mountain.

Rtanj is normally a quiet winter resort visited mainly by hikers and climbers from Serbia, and was once home to a number of now defunct coal mines. It is known for its wild countryside and fields of medicinal herbs, a main source of income for its hundred inhabitants.

"We have already registered interesting electromagnetic activities in previous years and we hope that we can gather more evidence to prove this mountain is different from the rest of the world," said Milovan Radisic, one of the conference participants.

The conference - which runs until December 23 - will also look into reports that calendars from several ancient civilisations including the Aztecs, the Hopi Indians and the Egyptians predicted a new era beginning on Friday - at the 11th minute of the 11th hour.

But physicist Stjepan Kulenovic scoffed at claims that Rtanj - which legend has it was once a sorcerer's castle - had magical properties.

"Such assumptions are scientifically so groundless that one can only laugh at them," he said.

"There are still unknown fields in the physics, but this one could be denied even by a fifth-grader."